Final value fee

[rustyjoe41]

 Hello can someone explain why they charge you a value fee AND a final value fee on shipping just seems like a rip off. I understand the Final value fee but the shipping fee ??cheers

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

eBay will tell you it is to discourage sellers from having a low item price and a huge postage price to avoid Final Value Fees.

They will also tell you it is to have a level playing field for sellers who factor shipping into their item price and offer "free shipping".

Some years back eBay were pushing hard for more sellers to offer "free shipping". They quoted stats that clearly showed that sellers who offered free shipping sold more items. They didn't give any details about how they came to that conclusion, but eBay said it so it must be true, eh?

They also pushed for more Buy It Now listings. Having more big store sellers reinforced this push because these stores don't do auctions.

[kopenhagen5]

Many sellers were cheating by listing an item for $1 with $500 postage.

So we have all those members to thank for the fee on postage now. 

[rustyjoe41]

This absolutely sucks thanks for the info.

[davewil1964]

it has been around for about 5 years, so it's hardly new.

[padi*0409]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Many sellers were cheating by listing an item for $1 with $500 postage.

So we have all those members to thank for the fee on postage now. 

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Call me a sceptic Kopes, but when eBay were contacted by me (quite a few times) to report postage ripoffs they did nothing about it, so I still believe it was too much of a Cash Cow for them to not put fees on postage.

Though certainly sellers rorting the system didn't help.

Spoiler

I see you're roaring ahead now.......................win lotto did ya ?

[kopenhagen5]

A lot of people thought it was about raising revenue but if you think about it, there really is no other way to control it on this kind of platform.

Win lotto ? Nah, just getting some necessaries, furikake, watch repair stuff, cat stuff, clothes, music cd's and licorice for mum. 

No spending money left.

Sold a few things too but not many buyers leave feedback these days.

Actually if I had feedback from everyone you could probably add another 30% on top.

[countessalmirena]

Kopenhagen, do you repair watches as a hobby?

One of these days, I want to teach myself how to repair antique grandfather clocks. I'll surprise my father and fix his antique longcase clock.

[digital*ghost]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

A lot of people thought it was about raising revenue but if you think about it, there really is no other way to control it on this kind of platform.

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Sure there is.

They would cost time and money, though. And, you really have to ask why this problem got "solved", while so many others (that can't be so easily monetised), didn't. 

eBay once had a little blurb in their seller help pages that said they believed charging FVF on postage was unfair, and that's why they don't do it.

If you really think about it, all they ever do is change the narrative to suit their current objectives, hence why I would recommend taking their lip service with a very big grain of salt.  

[go-tazz]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Win lotto ? Nah, just getting some necessaries,  watch repair stuff, 

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I've got some watches that I can't get the backs off,(what do you recommend,a sledgehammer or will a normal

hammer do?),